Editing Rowan County, Kentucky (section)

==Politics==
{{PresHead|place=Rowan County, Kentucky|source=<ref>{{Cite web |last=Leip |first=David |title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections |url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS |access-date=July 5, 2018 |website=uselectionatlas.org}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|6,224|3,484|165|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|5,994|3,880|191|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|5,174|3,295|379|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|4,035|3,438|192|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|3,907|4,074|173|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|4,063|4,556|87|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|3,546|3,505|175|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|2,309|3,215|780|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|2,469|3,558|1,247|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|3,093|2,968|16|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|3,698|2,748|24|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1980|Democratic|2,758|2,975|254|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|2,244|3,541|83|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|3,245|2,169|44|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|2,017|1,898|544|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|1,554|2,824|18|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|2,558|2,412|0|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|2,470|2,380|7|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|1,985|2,220|11|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|1,502|2,097|46|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|1,815|1,944|15|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|1,944|2,294|2|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|1,687|1,989|8|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|1,622|2,844|24|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|1,857|1,170|5|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|1,326|1,092|56|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|1,564|1,264|19|Kentucky}}
{{PresRow|1916|Republican|941|881|17|Kentucky}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|417|737|499|Kentucky}}
Rowan County used to be known as a swing county. It voted Republican in 2000, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 and Democratic in 2004 and 2008, but in most of those elections the winning candidate won by small margins. This changed in 2016 when Republican [[Donald Trump]] won the county with 58% of the vote to Democrat [[Hillary Clinton]]'s 37%, the largest margin of victory since [[Jimmy Carter]] won the county in 1976. Trump won this county by a 28% margin in 2024 over Democrat [[Kamala Harris]], the largest margin of victory since [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] won it in 1964. He became the first Republican presidential candidate to exceed 60% of the vote in this county since [[Herbert Hoover]] in 1928. Rowan County was one of four counties in Eastern Kentucky to vote for [[Barack Obama]] in 2008.

In 2015, local [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]-turned-[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] county clerk [[Kim Davis]] became notorious for illegally refusing to issue marriage licenses. David Ermold, one of the gay men refused a marriage license by Davis, ran in the 2018 Democratic primary election to seek the nomination to unseat her.<ref>https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/kim-davis-turned-him-away-now-he-s-running-unseat-n826766</ref><ref>https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Man-denied-marriage-license-by-Kim-Davis-announces-campaign-to-replace-her-462310493.html</ref> Davis was defeated in the general election by Democratic nominee Elwood Caudill, garnering only 3,566 votes (about 45.86% of the two-party vote) to Caudill's 4,210 (about 54.14%).<ref>https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/415366-anti-gay-marriage-country-clerk-kim-davis-loses-reelection-in-kentucky/</ref><ref>https://www.whas11.com/article/news/politics/kim-davis-loses-to-democrat-elwood-caudill-jr-in-rowan-county-clerk-race/417-611920897</ref>

The county voted "No" on [[2022 Kentucky Amendment 2]], an anti-abortion ballot measure, by 58% to 42%, and backed [[Donald Trump]] with 60% of the vote to [[Joe Biden]]'s 39% in the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020 presidential election]].<ref>{{cite web |title=November 8, 2022 - Official 2022 General Election Results |url=https://elect.ky.gov/results/2020-2029/Documents/2022%20General%20Election%20results.pdf |publisher=Commonwealth of Kentucky State Board of Elections |access-date=December 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224001202/https://elect.ky.gov/results/2020-2029/Documents/2022%20General%20Election%20results.pdf |archive-date=December 24, 2022}}</ref>

===Elected officials===
{| class=wikitable
|-
| colspan="3" |'''Elected officials as of January 3, 2025'''<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/Legislators/smembers_county.html |title=Senate Members - County |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website=apps.legislature.ky.gov |publisher=[[Kentucky General Assembly]] |access-date=January 3, 2025 |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/Legislators/hmembers_county.html |title=House Members - County |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website=apps.legislature.ky.gov |publisher=[[Kentucky General Assembly]] |access-date=January 3, 2025 |quote=}}</ref>
|- 
! scope=row|[[U.S. House]]
| {{party shading/Republican}}|[[Hal Rogers]] (R)
| {{party shading/Republican}}|{{ushr|KY|5|B}}
|- 
! scope=row|[[Kentucky Senate|Ky. Senate]]
| {{party shading/Republican}}|[[Steve West (Kentucky politician)|Stephen West]] (R)
| {{party shading/Republican}}|[[Kentucky's 27th Senate district|27]]
|- 
! scope=row|[[Kentucky House of Representatives|Ky. House]]
| {{party shading/Republican}}|[[Richard White (Kentucky politician)|Richard White]] (R)
| {{party shading/Republican}}|99
|}